Vinyl Collective was founded in 2007 by Suburban Home Records owner Virgil Dickerson. His involvement with vinyl dates back to 1995, when he started Suburban Home and initially released several seven-inch records. By 1999, Dickerson’s focus shifted to CDs as vinyl’s popularity declined, though he never lost his fondness for the format. Approximately four years ago, Dickerson decided to create a website dedicated to vinyl-related discussions. The site eventually grew to encompass a blog, message board and an online store. As a result, Vinyl Collective was born and since its inception has played a major role in independent music’s vinyl revival.

From the onset, Dickerson had nothing but modest objectives with Vinyl Collective. “The goal was just to put out records by bands that didn’t have records and hope it would be mildly successful,” he said. “The initial reaction was way more than I could have ever imagined. The feedback was really strong and the reception was just out of control. It kind of took on a life of its own. The site and the blog became a message board, and the message board became very active. Before I knew it there were thousands of people who were registered members on the board. The blog posts were really popular too. More and more opportunities to put out records came around and it just got bigger and bigger.” In the beginning, Vinyl Collective established itself by working with well-known bands like Every Time I Die and Minus the Bear. With the increasing threat of illegal downloading and CD sales now on the decline, bands and labels alike were excited to reconnect with vinyl. “Early on, everybody was happy to license their records and didn’t even think too much about it. Vinyl Collective started at a really good time, because for a lot of reasons people were getting excited about the idea of collecting vinyl. It all happened simultaneously,” Dickerson said.

Besides being a frontrunner in the vinyl resurgence, Vinyl Collective also benefited by carrying various types of music and not focusing on a particular genre. “As far as releases go, I wouldn’t say it’s any one genre. Every Time I Die, you can call them metal, hard rock or hardcore. Minus the Bear is obviously progressive rock. Portugal. The Man is kind of indie, kind of all over the place. We did The Copyrights and Cobra Skulls too. I guess it’s kind of more independent, alternative styles. It’s not necessarily just punk rock, just metal or just indie, but kind of that whole umbrella of independent music,” Dickerson said. While it’s mainly an online retail destination, Vinyl Collective also licenses and releases records too. Though at its core, Vinyl Collective is a space for music lovers to congregate and connect over a shared passion. “I think it came around at a time when there were a lot of people who were fairly segmented. You had all these vinyl collectors that had been collecting and that had been excited about it, but they didn’t really have a place where they could go and discuss it. When our message board came around, it just created this really cool community of like-minded individuals that found other people who were into the same thing,” he said. “At the same time, all these other people felt like they were done with CDs, but still wanted to have a physical, tangible thing they could hold in their hands that showed they support this artist. They found Vinyl Collective, the community and the message board. I think it just linked a lot of people together.”

Dickerson first developed an affinity for vinyl as a freshman at the University of Colorado in 1993. It was there that he was exposed to bands like Green Day, Operation Ivy and Screeching Weasel. Shortly thereafter he started a fanzine and began booking shows, and nearly 20 years later he’s still doing what he loves. “When I first got into punk rock in the early ‘90s, I fell in love with Fat Wreck Chords, Lookout! Records and a lot of those labels. If you wanted to have all the songs by your favorite bands on those labels, you’d have to buy the seven-inches. A band like 88 Fingers Louie, they put out these seven-inch singles on Fat long before they put out their first album on Hopeless, and those songs are just killer,” he said. “I started going to the record store every week to find out what new singles were coming in, and then I started picking up LPs as well. It’s something I can appreciate even more today, because at the time there weren’t digital downloads. The reason I think so many people have fallen in love with vinyl is that it’s kind of a reaction towards the emptiness of digital music. I love digital music and I love the convenience of it, but a lot of times when you have an iPod playing it’s just kind of background music. Whereas if you put a record on, you have to physically get up, lift the arm, put it on the A-side and do it that way. I think you pay attention to the music a lot more. Then you’ve got bigger artwork, nicer packaging, there’s a lot more detail and time put into it.” Dickerson also dismisses those who claim that vinyl is a passing trend, alluding to the fact that many fans never stopped collecting. “In spite of all the press citing the rebirth of vinyl, I’d argue that a lot these people were collecting vinyl years or even decades before what’s happening now. Even though there’s been a gain in popularity, it’s nowhere near the amount of digital or even CD sales. Yes, it’s the only physical form of music that’s seen an increase in sales lately, but CD sales are still, I don’t know by what degree, but I’d say maybe 50 times more than what vinyl sales are,” he said.

By all accounts, the music industry is still very much in a state of unrest. While it’s easy to point out the various problems, few can offer any clear-cut solutions. Dickerson doesn’t claim to have all the answers, yet he remains hopeful that things can turn around. “It’s tough, because I think with independent labels you kind of have to follow suit with whatever the majors do. I think the majors took a potential opportunity when Napster came around and really just fucked things up. Anytime an industry starts suing its biggest fans you’re kind of on the wrong path. Obviously the majors didn’t know how to handle this new technology and I think that early on they probably could have figured out some way to monetize peer-to-peer sharing. Instead they fought it every step of the way and now it’s to the point of no return. Every time they shutdown a peer-to-peer site another one pops up. There’s never going to be a shortage. Now we have to figure out how to monetize those habits,” he said. Looking forward, Dickerson sees several potential ways in which the music industry could be improved. These initiatives aren’t guaranteed to fix everything, but they may at least remedy some of the issues caused by illegal downloading. “There’s a book called The Future of Music and it talks about a concept called ‘Music like Water’. The concept is that music would be like a utility, not unlike water. You and I have unlimited access in our homes to as much water as we want, and we pay a really small fee for that utility. The idea is that music would be the same. Every household would have unlimited access to every song they ever wanted to hear and instead of paying $15 an album, everybody pays three or four dollars a month. Even though that’s not a lot of money, you multiple that by how many music listeners there are and that could really help out the industry,” he said. “The other idea is that obviously all the internet providers and CD-R companies benefit off the illegal acquisition of music, so there should be some sort of kickback to the music industry. People buy CD-Rs because they’re copying music and a lot of people use their internet connection to download music. It’s like everybody is benefitting off this illegal activity except the industry that produces music. I don’t necessarily have a problem with people downloading music for free, but somewhere along the line bands and labels need to figure out a way to make money off that. It’s not free to make records. It’s tough when you work within an industry that has a product that’s mainly acquired for free. The question is how do we overcome that? I don’t know what the exact answer is, but I think there’s a lot of ideas out there that could be implemented that currently aren’t.”

In the future, Dickerson hopes Vinyl Collective can continue to be a positive forum for people to share their enthusiasm for collecting records. There’s also a long list of albums yet to be issued on vinyl that he dreams to someday release. Recently, the staff behind the Shop Radio Cast website has taken responsibility of Vinyl Collective’s blog and message board, allowing Dickerson more time to focus on Suburban Home. In terms of parting words for vinyl enthusiasts, Dickerson urged fans to keep on supporting both independent music and independent retailers. “Every record that comes out, there’s a lot of time and a lot of money put into releasing it. If you do care about those labels or those bands, try to definitely support them by picking up their records. The other thing is that even though Vinyl Collective is online, there are tons of independent record stores that continue to struggle. Definitely make sure you support your local stores because they’re a dying breed. It would really bother me if there was a day when there were no record stores. Even though most people spend a lot of their money with online retail, try to support your local record stores too,” he said.